Automatically-controlled driving mechanism for textile machinery or the like



Jan. 10, 1928. 1,655,739

. J. ROBSON. AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLED DRIVING MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE MACHINERY OR THE LIKE.

' Filed May 5, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR \/o//A 7P0 a 3 0M v BY ATTORNEYS I 10 I J. ROBSON AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLED DRIVING MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE MACHINERY OR THE LIKE I Filed May 5, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVYENTOR (/omv 7PoasoA/ Jan. 10, 1928.

- J. ROBSON AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLED DRIVING MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE MACHINERY OR THE LIKE Filed May 5, 1925 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 \E. fl- F INVENTOR /0///v Posse/v 4321mm a ATTORNEYS f7 Jan. -10, 1928.

- J. ROBSON AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLED D RIV 1m MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE MACHINERY on THE LIKE Filed Maya; 1925 v 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IIIIIIIIIII INVENTOR Jm/N Ross on! MMMWM i ATTORN EYS Patented; J an. 10, 1928.

. JOHN ROBSON,

OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOIR TO THE WATERBURY TOOL "COMPANY, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

AUTOMATICALLY-CONTROLLED DRIVING MECHANISM FOR TEXTILE MACHINERY R THE LIKE.

Application filed May 5, 1925. Serial No. 28,644.

It is a common practice in many arts, such, for example, as the textile art or the paper making art, where a web of material is subjected to various treatments, to arrange in tandem, or series, the machines for performingsuccessive operations on the material, and to pass the web directly from one machine to the other. This tandem or series arrangement of the machines possesses the advantage of enabling the material to be fed from one machine to the other without handling, but great difficulty is experi enced in controlling the driving mechanisms of the different machines to cause them to operate in properly timed relationship.

Many different forms of automatic controls for securing the proper timing of the driving mechanisms of the different machines have been proposed, it being a common practice to provide an excess of the web which 'is held by a more or less freely mounted roller, in a loop or bight between adjacent or successive machines, and to employ this roller for actuating automatically a suitable control. With these controls a disturbance in the timed relationship of the machines produces a variation in the length of the excess material between the two machines and a corresponding change in the position of the freely mounted roller which,

is used to govern automatically the actuation of a clutch, or other means, connected with the driving mechanism of one or both of the machines.

As the freely mounted roller is supported by the loop of excess material, the weight of the roller which can "be employed is necessarily limited by the character of material being treated and as very light rollers must frequently be used it is very difficult to insure the positive actuation of the auto matic control. Consequently it has been a problem to devise a control of this type which would be sufficiently sensitive, yet positive inits operation, and at the same time sturdy in its construction. In addition, a further difficulty has been encountered in providing a control capable of quickly producing the necessary changes in the. speed ratios of the successive machines without subjecting the machines to sudden jars, and the material to jerks, such as occur when mechanical clutches are employed.

material,

in web The principal objects of this invention are to provide, for a plurality of machines adapted to act successively upon a web of a new and improved driving mechanism and an automatic control therefor, which while being extremely sensitive, will be positive in its operation, and sturdy. and durable in its construction;

A further object is to provide such a driving mechanism and control capable of quickly producing the desiredspeed changes without jerking the material or jarring the machines.

These and other objects will appear more fully from the following more detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof.

For the purpose of illustration I have shown my invention applied to a tentering machine and drying machine, such as are commonl but it Wi I be understood that the'invention is applicable to any machines used for successively treating or operating on material form.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the front or inlet end of a tentering maemployed in the textile industry,

chine having a battery of drying rolls or cans mounted in advance thereof; Fig. 2

Fig. 4 is a transverse detail section on the a line H of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic plan on a reduced scale showing an example of therelative location of the main elements of the installation; Fig. 6 is a side elevation partly in section of the fluid pressure pump, and Fig. 7 is a detail section on the line 77 of Fig. 6.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 10 indicates a drying ,machine consisting of a battery of drying rolls 11, mounted in advance of the inlet end of a tentering machine 12. The web of material 13 tobe treated passes to the drying machine and is wound about the rolls 11 thereof from bottom to top, passing from .the top roll over an idler 14 and thence downwardly and upwardly about a second idler 14 to form a loop or bight. A freely mounted roller 15, supported within the said bight, has the ends of its shaft 16 guided for vertical movement in a pair of uideways 17 formed in the standards 18. Ai ter passing the roller 14*, the web top roll being providedwith a pulley 24 adapted to be driven from any source of power, and the tentering machine is provided at its delivery end with a driving gear 25 and a driving pulley for connecting a source of power to the machine.

The above construction is that usually employed for machines of this character and various types of speed controlshave been used with such machines to secure the driving of the drying rolls and tentering machine in proper timed relationship. In accordance with the principles of my invention, I employ a fluid pressure driving mechanism comprising a fluid pressure pump A. which is driven by any. suitable means such as an electric motor and which delivers fluid under a constant pressure to a pair of fluid pressure operated motors B B connected by-the gearing 26 and belt 32, respectively, to the driving-mechanism of the tentering machine 12 and drying machine 10.

The general construction of the pump and motors is similar, and is of the type -disclosed, for instance, in Letters Patent of the United States granted to. Harvey D. Wil- 'liams on June15, 1909, No. 925,148 and on November 18, 1912, No. 1,044,838.. Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate the pump construction, The shaft of the pump is suitably journalled in the pump casing and is connected to the electric motor 30 above referred to. A barrel 36 enclosed within the pump casing is se-' cured to said shaft to rotate therewith, and said barrel. has formed therein a plurality of cylinders 37 in which the pistons 38 are adapted to reciprocate. The stroke of these pistons, and consequently'the amount of fluid pumped for each rotation of the shaft 35 and barrel 36, depends upon the inclination of the box 39, in which is rotatably mounted a swashplate 40; said swashplate being connected with the pistons 38 by the piston rods 41. As the p1stons are caused to reciprocate they suck or force oil through the cylinder ports 42, which are adapted to regis-v ter alternately, as the barrel 36 rotates, with the arcuate ports 43, 44, formed in the end of the pump casing. One of saidports,;for' example, the ort 43, is the pressure port and the other is t e suction ort.

Thepressure port 43 o the pump has connected therewith, the main pressure pipe 45,

under pressure to the motors through the pipe 45 and branches 45, 45 and the liquid after passing through the motors, is returned to the suction side of. the pump through the pipe 46 and branches 46", 46".

Inasmuch as the construction of the pump and motors is similar, l have deemed it un necessary to show the internal construction of the motors; it will be understood, however, that the passage of the fluid under pressure through the motors produces the reciprocation of pistons similar to the pistons 38 which causes the rotation of a barrel by means of the connection of said pistons with an inclined rotatably mounted swashplate. It will be further understood that, (as generally the case with pump-motor combinations of this character) the motor boxes corresponding to the pump box 39 are preferably held at a fixed angle,-while the inclination of the pump box is variable.

For the purpose ,of the present invention, I prefer to use a pump having a constantjdelivery pressure which is maintained by the following mechanism: The box 39 is rovided with a lateral projection in the orm of a stub axle or pin 50 which is slidably mounted within a spherical bearing 51, mov- Which connects by the branches 45,- 45", with I able within a similarly shaped seat in a block 52 formed on the lower end of a rod 53; said block being guided for vertical sliding move- ,ment in suitable guideways formed on the inner wall of the pump casing. I The upper end of the rod 53 has secured thereto a pis-' ton 54 mounted in a cylinder 55 which is connected by thepipe 5.6 with the pressure port 43 of the pump. The rod 53 extends outwardly beyond the head or. end of the cylinr Ill) der and has secured thereto, a weight carrier 57 adapted to support detachably a plurality of weights 58. Whenever the pumyiis delivering. liquid, the delivery pressure eing communicated to the cylinder 55 through the pipe 56 will tend to force the piston 54 upwardly, thus causing the block 52 to move the box 39 and swashplate towards the neutral position, i. e.- in parallelism with the shaft 35. The upward force of this pressure will be resisted by the weights 58 and, by.

properly selecting the amount of weight emi ployed, the position of the swashplate will be varied automatically to maintain the desired constant delivery pressure. order to compensate for the expansion 'of'the fluid due to increases in temperature the pump 7 and motor casings are connected by the'pipes '59 and 60 with'anexpansion tank 61.

As-it is the usual practice to operate the lac , the desired speed of travel of the tenter chains. i

The pressure branch 45" leading to the motor B for the drying machine is co1 1-' trolled by a valve 66, the opening of which is automatically controlled in the following manner: One end of the shaft 16 of the freely mounted roller 15,- has secured there to one end of a sprocket chain 67 which passes upwardly about the sprocket 68 and thence downwardly, the other end of the chain being secured to the compensating gate or counterweight 69. Sprocket 68 is secured to one end of, a shaft 70, the other end of which carries a sprocket'71 which is connected by a chain 72 with a sprocket 7 3 fixed to the outer end of the stem 74 of the valve 66 which controls the flow of the fluid through the branch 4:5 to the motor B valve will occur thus speeding up the dry-: 7 ing' machine. Only a very small 0 The operation is as follows: Assuminthat the electric motor and pump are placed in operation and the valve is set to. secure the desired speed of travel of the tentering machine; if, for example, the speed of the drying machine is too fast, an excess of ma.- terial will be delivered thereby which will cause the length of the bight or loop in which the roller 15 rests to be increased, and consequently the roller will descend, thus moving the chain 67 and raising the gate 69 which will cause the valve. 66 to be actuated through the sprocket and chain gearing-and throttle the delivery of fluid to the motor B thereby decreasing the speed of the drying machine. If the drying machine lags behind the tentering machine, the reverse ,movement of the rolleri15, gate, chains and rce is required to move'the valve' stem 74 but the change of speed of the motor produced-by the throttling of the fluid must necessarily be positive, while at the same time because.

of' the well known characteristics of fluid pressure devices,v this changeof speed is accomplished without any sudden jars or jerks.

It will be understood that many changes, variations and modifications of the construction herein. described and illustrated.- may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of my invention," for example, any

number of successive machines may be employed,"each having its fluid pressure motor with acommon pump.

Furthermore, it will be understood that the'invention is not limited in "its application to machines of the construction herein disclosed or to machines'for performing only drying and tentering operations, but that the invention may be appliedto any machines for operating successively ona web of material.

It will also be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to a freely mounted roller for maintaining the material and having an excess of said web arranged in a bight or loop between adjacent machines with a freely mounted ported within said bight, of a fluid pressure pump and fluid pressure motors actuated by the fluid circulated by said pump, means for connecting one of said fluid pressure motors to each of said adjacent machines, valves for regulating the flow of fluid to said motors, and connections fromsaid freely mounted roller to one ofsaid valves. for regulating the speed of the motor controlled thereby in accordance with variations in the position of said roller.

2. The combination with a plurality of machines performing successive operations upon a web of material which is fed directly from one machine to another with an.

.sure pump, conduits connecting said pump and motors, valves for controlling the flow of fluid through said conduits, andjan 0pof a phiroller superative connection between said tension maintaining means and one of said valves for automatically controlling thefrelative driving speeds of said adjacent machines. 3. In an apparatus of the character described comprising a' pair of machines for performing successive operations upon a web 'of material which 1s fed directly from one of said machines to the other, and movable means for maintaining the-material between said machines under tension; characterized bythe provision of a fluid pressure operated motor for each. of said machines and operatively connected with the drivingmechanism of its respective machine, a flu1d presr surev pump, conduits connected with said pump and motors, valves located in said conduits bet-ween the pump' and said motors, and operative connectlons between said means and one of said valves for automatically controlling the flowof the flu1d to'one of said motors and thereby governing the rela,

tive driving speeds of said machines in accordance with the movement of said tension maintaining means .said machines, characterized by the provision of a pair of fluid pressure operated motors, pne for each of said machines and operatively connected with the driving mechanism of its respective machine, a fluid pressure pump, conduits connecting said pump and motors, valves interposed in said conduits between said pump and motors, and operative connections between one of said valves andsaid roller for causing said valveuto beautomatically operated for controlling the speed of said motorin accordance with variations'in the length of said loop of material.

5.'In an apparatus of the character 'de-' scribed comprising a pair of machines for performing successive operations upon a web of material, a length of which is fed directly vfrom one of said machines to the other, and a freely mounted roller for maintaining said length of material, in a loop or bight between said machines, characterized by the proviof said motors and said pump, and opera-i sion of a pair oft fluid pressure operated motors, one for each of said machines and operatively connected with the driving mechanism of its respective machine, a fluid pressure pump, conduits connecting said pump and motors, a counterweight, a chain having its ends connected to said counter weight and freely mounted roller; and a valve interposed in theconduit between one .tively connected with said chain.

6'. An apparatus of the character described comprising a tentering machine and adrying machine arranged in tandemffor operating successively upon aweb of material, .a compensating device interposed between said machines for maintaining the web of material between said machines under tension, a pair of fluid pressure operated motors,

one connected tothe driving mechanisms of each of said machines, a fluid pressure pump, conduits connecting said puinp and motors, a valve interposed between said pump and one of said motors and connections between said valve and compensating device for automatically operating said valve, to regulate the speed of said motor in accordance with variations in the length of material I successively upon a web of material, a compensating device interposed between said u machines for maintaining the web of material between said machines under tension, a

pair of fluid pressure operated motors, one

connected to the driving mechanisms of. each of said machines, a fluid pressure pump, means to insurega constant pressure in the fluid delivered by said pump, suction and delivery conduits connecting said pump and motors, a pair of valves interposed between said pump and motors in said delivery con-' duits, one of said valves being provided with a manual control to secure a uniform con-..

stant speed for one of said motors and connections between the other of said valves and said compensating device to cause said valve to be automatically operated for regulating the speed of the other of said motors in accordance with the movements of said compensating device produced by variations in the length of material between said machines. a I

8. The combination of a plurality of mechanisms, each having a driving gear and operating successively upon a web of material which is passed in a loop or bight' between two adjacent mechanisms and wherein; the variation in position of a freely floating roller suspended in said loop or bight is employed to control the relative speeds of said, adjacent, mechanisms, characterized by the driving gears being offthe hydraulic speed gear type supplied with fluid .under pressure from a fluid pressure pump, pipe lines connectingsaid pump with each of said speed gears, a valve in one of said pipe lines,'and connectionsbetween said valve and-,sald roller to actuate said valve in accordance with variations in the position of said roller, said pipe lines being arranged in parallel whereby when the adjustment of sald valve 1s changed a decrease or increase of the amount of fluid passing through the pipe line controlled by said valve will result I in a corresponding increase or decrease re spectively of the amount of fluid passing through the pipe line'to the other gear thus producing opposite speed changes in saidadjacent mechanisms. 7 z 1 In testimony whereof I have, hereunto set my hand.

JOHN ROBSON. 

